The poem begins with a single blood-curdling cry, which the old man initially believes is a screech-owl. Within Southern folklore, drawing on the cultures of Latin America as well as Native Americans, the appearance of a screech-owl is a bad omen. It symbolizes, not wisdom as owls are conventionally said to symbolize, but rather the approach of death, often unexpected, often tragic. Indeed, when the old man heads out to the porch he realizes his mistake. The “quavering cry” (Line 1) is no owl; rather it is “one of them” (Line 5), by which he means one of the Black people targeted by the Klan.

The haunted cry against the darkness of the night suggests the futility of the Black men’s howls of pain and their pleas for mercy. The old man understands as he enjoys the screams. There is no one who hears the screams who would be willing to intervene. The sound of the men’s agony is reduced within the old man’s skewered perception as something other than human, a strategy which marks how completely the old man has interdicted any sense of morality or outrage. The anguished cries of men being beaten to death with chains is little more than the screech of an owl.